MIMO OFDM system

ABSTRACT

A MIMO OFDM system includes a plurality of space-time encoders for encoding respective data blocks with independent space-time codes. The transformed data block signals are transmitted by a plurality of transmit antennas and received by a plurality of receive antennas. The received data is pre-whitened prior to maximum likelihood detection. In one embodiment, successive interference cancellation can be sued to improve system performance. Channel parameter estimation can be enhanced by weighting the channel impulse response estimates based upon a deviation from average.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 09/721,523, filed on Feb. 23, 2001, which claims the benefit ofU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/206,182, filed May 22, 2000,each incorporated by reference.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH

Not Applicable

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to communication systems and,more particularly, to Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM)communication systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

High data-rate wireless access is demanded by many applications.Traditionally, more bandwidth is required for higher data-ratetransmission. However, due to spectral limitations, techniques forincreasing bandwidth are often impractical and/or expensive.

In one know system, multiple transmit and receive antennas are used toobtain spectrally efficient data transmission. Multiple transmitantennas can be used to obtain transmit diversity or to formmultiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels. Multiple transmitantennas have also been used to provide diversity in wireless systems.Transmit diversity can be based on linear transforms or by space-timecoding. Space-time coding in particular is characterized by high codeefficiency and can improve the efficiency and performance of OrthogonalFrequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The system capacity canbe further improved if multiple transmit and receive antennas are usedto form MIMO channels. Compared with a single-input single-output (SISO)system with flat Rayleigh fading or narrowband channels, a MIMO systemcan improve the capacity by a factor of the minimum of the number oftransmit and receive antennas.

FIG. 1 shows a conventional OFDM system 10 including subsystems fortransmission and reception of data. A coding subsystem 12 encodes binarydata from a data source. The coded data is interleaved by aninterleaving subsystem 14 and then mapped onto multi-amplitudemulti-phase constellation symbols by a mapping subsystem 16. In oneparticular embodiment, the multi-amplitude multi-phase constellationsymbols include quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols. Pilotsignals can then inserted by a pilot insertion subsystem 18 to estimatethe channel at the remote subscriber unit receivers. Aserial-to-parallel conversion subsystem 20 converts the serial datastream to a parallel data stream that is provided to an inverse fastFourier transform (IFFT) subsystem 22.

The transformed data is converted to serial data stream by aparallel-to-serial converter 24. Cyclic extension and windowing can beadded by a subsystem 26 prior to digital-to-analog conversion by a DAC28 and transmission by an antenna system 30. The receive portion 32 ofthe OFDM system includes similar corresponding components for extractingthe data from the received OFDM signal.

As shown in FIG. 2, the known OFDM system 10 utilizes an overlappingorthogonal multicarrier modulation technique having a plurality ofsubcarriers 50. FIG. 3 shows the orthogonal nature of the subcarriers.More particularly, each of four subcarriers 60 of one OFDM data symbolhas an integral number of cycles in the interval T. The number of cyclesbetween adjacent subcarriers differs by one.

In one known OFDM transmission system, the complexity of the space-timeprocessor increases as the bandwidth increases and the performance ofthe space-time processor is significantly degraded when estimatedchannel parameters are used to construct space-time processors.

It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a MIMO OFDM system havingenhanced signal detection. It would further be desirable to increase theaccuracy of channel parameter estimates.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a MIMO OFDM system utilizing independentspace-time codes for multiple transmit antenna sets. The receiverdecodes the space-time codes using pre-whitening followed by maxiumumlikelihood decoding. With this arrangement, the MIMO OFDM systemprovides spectrally efficient wideband communication. The MIMO-OFDMsystem determines and uses channel delay profile estimates to achievemore accurate channel parameter estimation.

In one aspect of the invention, a MIMO OFDM communication systemincludes a plurality of transmit antennas and a plurality of receiveantennas. First and second data blocks are each transformed into twosignals by respective first and second space-time encoders. Each of thefour resultant signals form an OFDM block that is transmitted by arespective transmit antenna. Each receive antenna receives a signal thatis the superposition of the four transmitted OFDM blocks. When detectingand decoding the coded signal for the first data block, the coded signalfor the second data block is treated as an interfering signal.Similarly, the first data block signal is treated as an interferingsignal when detecting and decoding the second data block signal. Thereceived signals are pre-whitened prior to maximum likelihood decoding,which can include Viterbi decoding. In one embodiment, pre-whitening forthe maximum likelihood decoding includes minimum mean square error(MMSE) restoration of the desired signals followed by whitening of theresidual interfering signals and noise.

Successive interference cancellation can improve performance of thesystem. More particularly, after the first and second data blocks aredecoded, it is determined whether the decoded signals contain errors. Inthe case where one decoded data block has an error and the other datablock does not contain an error, the correct data block signal isregenerated and removed from the received signal. The other data blockis then re-detected and decoded from the modified signal.

In a further aspect of the invention, a MIMO OFDM system enhanceschannel parameter estimation by utilizing relatively accurate channeldelay profiles derived from the spatial correlation of the channelimpulse responses. In general, the estimated channel responses areweighted based upon a deviation from the average channel response. Bymore heavily weighting relatively accurate channel responses, thechannel parameter estimations are more accurate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be more fully understood from the following detaileddescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a prior art orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)system;

FIG. 2 is a prior art graphical depiction showing subchannels used inthe OFDM system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a prior art graphical depiction showing orthogonal subcarriersused in the OFDM system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a portion of a MIMO-OFDM system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 5A-6B are graphical representations of MIMO-OFDM systems inaccordance with the present invention having various channel delayprofiles, numbers of receive antennas, and detection techniques;

FIGS. 7A-B are graphical comparisons of MIMO-OFDM systems in accordancewith the present invention with ideal and estimated channel parameters;and

FIGS. 8A-D are graphical representations of MIMO-OFDM systems inaccordance with the present invention with various Doppler frequencies.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In general, the present invention provides an orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) system having multiple transmit and receiveantennas for forming MIMO channels. With this arrangement, channelestimation and signal detection is enhanced.

FIG. 4 shows a MIMO-OFDM system 100 having multiple, here shown as four,transmit antennas TA1-4 and a plurality of receive antennas RA1-P.Although the MIMO-OFDM system is shown having four transmit antennas, itis understood that any number of transmit antennas can be used. Inaddition, the number of receive antennas should be equal to or greaterthan the number of transmit antennas.

The MIMO-OFDM system 100 includes a first space time encoder STE1 thatreceives a first data block b₁[n,k] and a second space-time encoder STE2that receives a second data block b₂[n,k]. At time n at tone k, each ofthe two data blocks, {b_(i)[n,k]:k=0, 1, . . . } for i=1 and 2, istransformed into two signals, {t_(2i+j)[n,k]:k=0, 1, . . . , & j=1, 2}for i=1 and 2, respectively, (Equations 1-3) through the first andsecond space-time encoders STE1, STE2. Each of the coded signals formsan OFDM block. The transmit antennas TA1-4 transmit the OFDM signalsafter respective inverse fast Fourier transform IFFT1-4 modulation byrespective signals tm_(i)[n,k] for i=1, . . . , 4.

The signals sent by the transmit antennas TA1-4 are received by thereceive antennas RA1-RAP. The received signals r₁[n,k], r₂[n,k], . . . ,r_(P)[n,k] are transformed by respective fast Fourier transform (FFT)subsystems FFT1 -FFTP to generate signals that are provided to aspace-time processor STP, which provides detected signal information torespective first and second space-time decoders STD1,STD2. A channelparameter estimator CPE receives the transformed signals from whichchannel parameter information is determined and then provided to thespace-time processor STP for use in decoding the signals.

The received signal at each receive antenna RA1-RAP is the superpositionof the four distorted transmitted signals, which can be expressed belowin Equation 1:

$\begin{matrix}{{{r_{j}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} = {{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{4}{{H_{ij}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{t_{i}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}}} + {w_{j}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}}},} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(1)}\end{matrix}$for j=1, . . . , p, where p corresponds to the number of receiveantennas, H_(ij)[n,k] denotes the channel frequency response for thek-th tone at time n, corresponding to the i-th transmit and the j-threceive antenna, and w_(j)[n,k] denotes the additive complex Gaussiannoise on the j-th receive antenna. The noise is assumed to be zero-meanwith variance σ_(n) ² and uncorrelated for different times n's, tonesk's, and receive antennas j's.

The input-output relationship for the OFDM signals can be also expressedin vector form as set forth in Equation 2-4 below:

$\begin{matrix}{{{r\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} = {{{H_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{t_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} + {{H_{2}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{t_{2}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} + {w\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}}},{where}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(2)} \\{{{{r\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}\overset{\Delta}{=}\begin{pmatrix}{r_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} \\\vdots \\{r_{4}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}\end{pmatrix}},{{w\lbrack {n,\; k} \rbrack}\;\overset{\Delta}{=}\begin{pmatrix}{w_{1}\lbrack {n,\; k} \rbrack} \\\vdots \\{w_{4}\lbrack {n,\; k} \rbrack}\end{pmatrix}},{{t_{i}\lbrack {n,\; k} \rbrack}\;\overset{\Delta}{=}\begin{pmatrix}{t_{{2i} + 1}\lbrack {n,\; k} \rbrack} \\{t_{{2i} + 2}\lbrack {n,\; k} \rbrack}\end{pmatrix}}}{and}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(3)} \\{{H_{i}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}\overset{\Delta}{=}\begin{pmatrix}{H_{{2i} + 11}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} & {H_{{2i} + 21}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} \\\vdots & \vdots \\{H_{{2i} + {1p}}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} & {H_{{2i} + {2p}}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}\end{pmatrix}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(4)}\end{matrix}$

To achieve transmit diversity gain and detection of the transmittedsignals, the space-time processor STP extracts the required signals fordecoding by the first and second space-time decoders STD1, STD2. Thespace-time processor and space-time decoders each require channel stateinformation.

In one embodiment, the CPE utilizes conventional training sequences toexploit time and frequency domain correlations of the channelparameters. Exemplary channel estimation techniques are described in Y.Li, et al., “Channel Estimation for OFDM Systems with TransmitterDiversity in Mobile Wireless Channels,” IEEE Journal of Selected Areasin Comm., Vol. 17, pp. 461 471, March 1999, and Y. Li., “SimplifiedChannel Estimation for OFDM Systems with Multiple Transmit Antennas,”IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Comm., Vol. 1, January, 2002, pp. 67et seq., which are incorporated herein by reference.

The complex baseband representation of a mobile wireless channel impulseresponse can be described by Equation 5 below:

$\begin{matrix}{{h( {t,\tau} )} = {\sum\limits_{k}{{\gamma_{k}(t)}{c( {\tau - \tau_{k}} )}}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(5)}\end{matrix}$where τ_(k) is the delay of the k-th path, γ_(k)(t) is the correspondingcomplex amplitude, and c(t) is a shaping pulse having a frequencyresponse, which can be a square-root raised-cosine Nyquist filter. Dueto the motion of the vehicle, the complex amplitudes γ_(k)(t) arewide-sense stationary (WSS), narrow-band complex Gaussian processes,which are independent for each path. The average powers of the complexamplitudes γ_(k)(t) depend on the channel delay profiles, e.g., hillyterrain (HT) and typical urban (TU), which are determined by theenvironment. The channels typically have the same delay profiles.

From Equation 5 above, it follows that the frequency response at time tcan be expressed as set forth below in Equation 6:

$\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{{H( {t,f} )}\overset{\Delta}{=}{\int_{- \infty}^{+ \infty}{{h( {t,\tau} )}{\mathbb{e}}^{{- j}\; 2\;\pi\; f\;\tau}\ {\mathbb{d}\tau}}}} \\{{= {{C(f)}{\sum\limits_{k}{{\gamma_{k}(t)}{\mathbb{e}}^{{- j}\; 2\;\pi\; f\;\tau_{k}}}}}},}\end{matrix} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(6)}\end{matrix}$where

$\begin{matrix}{{C(f)}\overset{\Delta}{=}{\int_{- \infty}^{+ \infty}{{c(\tau)}{\mathbb{e}}^{{- j}\; 2\;\pi\; f\;\tau}\ {\mathbb{d}\tau}}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(7)}\end{matrix}$In an OFDM system with proper cyclic extension and timing, the channelfrequency response, with tolerable leakage, can be represented byEquation 8 below:

$\begin{matrix}{{H\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}\overset{\Delta}{=}{{H( {{nT}_{f},{k\;\Delta\; f}} )} = {\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{K_{o} - 1}{{h\lbrack {n,l} \rbrack}W_{K}^{kl}}}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(8)}\end{matrix}$where the channel response is

${{h\lbrack {n,l} \rbrack}\hat{=}{h( {{nT}_{f},{k\frac{T_{S}}{K}}} )}},{W_{K} = {\exp\;( {{- j}\frac{2\;\pi}{K}} )}},$K is the number of tones in an OFDM block, T₇₁ and Δƒ are the blocklength and tone spacing, respectively, and T_(s) is the symbol durationof OFDM, which is related to Δf by T_(s)=1/Δf. The channel responsesh[n,1], for 1=0, 1, . . . , K₀−1, are WSS, narrow-band complex Gaussianprocesses. The average power of the channel h[n,l] and index K₀(<K)depend on the delay profiles, e.g., HT and TU, of the wireless channels.

In accordance with the present invention, signal detection is enhancedby utilizing spatial pre-whitening followed by maximum-likelihood (ML)decoding. While joint detection of multiple inputs may be optimal, theconcomitant computational complexity renders such an approachimpractical.

In contrast to joint detection, in accordance with the present inventionthe coded signals for the second data block b₂[n,k] are treated asinterfering signals when detecting and decoding the first data blockb₁[n,k] signals. Similarly, the coded signals for the first data blockb₁[n,k] are treated as interfering signals when detecting and decodingthe second data block b₂[n,k]. In addition, the transmitted signals areconsidered to be uncorrelated and Gaussian processes.

For example, the second data block signal b₂[n,k], which is transmittedby the third and fourth transmit antennas TA3,TA4, is treated as aninterfering signal when detecting and decoding the first data blockb₁[n,k]. Therefore, the interfering signal v[n, k] at the receivers isequal to the channel response vector H₂[n,k] multiplied by thetransmitted signal vector t₂[n,k] for the interfering signal plusGaussian noise w[n,k] as set forth below in Equation 9:v[n, k]=H ₂ [n, k]t ₂ [n, k]+w(n, k)  Eq. (9)The vectors in Equation 9 are derived from Equations 2-4 above.

If v[n, k] is spatially and temporally white, then the minimum Euclidiandistance decoder is equivalent to maximum likelihood (ML) decoder.However, if v[n,k] is spatially or temporally correlated, thenpre-whitening is used for the ML decoder. Pre-whitening for ML decodingis well known to one of ordinary skill in the art and is describedbelow. In general, the space-time codes for the first and second datablocks are decoded using pre-whitening for flattening the receiverresponse to facilitate ML detection. The detected constellation pointsare mapped to the sequence nearest in Euclidean distance.

From the ML criterion, ML decoding is equivalent to finding theestimated first data block {{circumflex over (b)}₁[n,k] that minimizesthe value of Equation 10 below:

$\begin{matrix}{{C( \{ {b_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} \} )} = {\sum\limits_{k = 1}^{K}{{m\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}.}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(10)}\end{matrix}$where the minimum Euclidean distance is defined in Equations 11-12below:m[n,k]

(r[n,k]−H ₁ [n,k]t ₁ [n,k])^(H) R _(v) ⁻¹ [n,k](r[n,k]−H ₁ [n,k]t ₁[n,k])  Eq. (11)andR _(v) [n,k]

E{v[n,k]v ^(H) [n,k]}=H ₂ [n,k]H ₂ ^(H) [n,k]+σ _(n) ² I  Eq. (12)As known to one of ordinary skill in the art, the inverse of the matrixR_(v)[n,k], which is derived from the cross correlation H₂[n,k]H₂^(H)[n,k] of the interfering channel response, can be used to whiten thesignal.

Direct calculation then yields that the minimum Euclidean distance canbe defined as set forth in Equation 13

$\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{{m\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} = {{{r^{H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{R_{\upsilon}^{- 1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{r\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} -}} \\{{{t_{\; 1}^{\; H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{H_{\; 1}^{\; H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{R_{\upsilon}^{- 1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{r\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} -} \\{{{r^{H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{R_{\upsilon}^{- 1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{H_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{t_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} +} \\{{t_{1}^{H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{H_{\; 1}^{\; H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{R_{\upsilon}^{- 1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{H_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{{t_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}.}}\end{matrix} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(13)}\end{matrix}$Denoting {tilde over (H)}[n,k] as a two by two matrix satisfyingEquation 14 and 15H ₁ ^(H) [n,k]R _(v) ⁻¹ [n,k]H ₁ [n,k]

{tilde over (H)} ^(H) [n,k]{tilde over (H)}[n,k]  Eq. (14)andL ₁ [n,k]

(H ₁ {tilde over (H)} ₁ ⁻¹)^(H) R _(v) ⁻¹ [n,k].  Eq. (15)it then follows that the minimum Euclidean distance can be representedin Equation 16

$\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{{m\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} = {{{r^{H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{R_{\upsilon}^{- 1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{r\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} -}} \\{{{t_{\; 1}^{\; H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{{\overset{\_}{H}}_{\; 1}^{\; H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{L_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{r\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} -} \\{{{r^{H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{L_{1}^{H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{{\overset{\_}{H}}_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{t_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} +} \\{{t_{1}^{H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{{\overset{\_}{H}}_{\; 1}^{\; H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{{\overset{\_}{H}}_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{t_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} \\{= {{{r^{H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{R_{\upsilon}^{- 1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{r\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} -}} \\{{{t_{\; 1}^{\; H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}\;{{\overset{\;\_}{H}}_{\; 1}^{\; H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}\;{{\overset{\;\_}{r}}_{\; 1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} -} \\{{{{\overset{\_}{r}}_{\; 1}^{\; H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{{\overset{\_}{H}}_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{t_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} +} \\{{t_{\; 1}^{\; H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}\;{{\overset{\;\_}{H}}_{\; 1}^{\; H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}\;{{\overset{\;\_}{H}}_{\; 1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{t_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} \\{= {{{r^{H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{R_{\upsilon}^{- 1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{r\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} - {{{\overset{\_}{r}}_{\; 1}^{\; H}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{{\overset{\;\_}{r}}_{\; 1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}} +}} \\{{{{{\overset{\;\_}{r}}_{\; 1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} - {{{\overset{\;\_}{H}}_{\; 1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}{t_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}}}}^{2},}\end{matrix} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} 16}\end{matrix}$where{tilde over (r)} ₁ [n,k]

L ₁ [n,k]r[n,k].  Eq. (17)

When the well known Viterbi algorithm is used for the ML decoding of thespace-time codes, the first two terms in the above equation for m[n,k]are independent of the detected data and only the third term, i.e.,∥{tilde over (r)}₁[n,k]−{tilde over (H)}₁[n,k]t₁[n,k]∥², is related tothe detected data and affects the metric in the trellis search when theViterbi algorithm is used. Trellis searching is well known to one ofordinary skill in the art. Therefore, the ML decoding is equivalent tofinding the estimated first data block {{circumflex over (b)}₁[n,k] thatminimizes the value of Equation 18 below:

$\begin{matrix}{{\overset{\sim}{C}( \{ {b_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} \} )} = {\sum\limits_{k = 1}^{K}{{{{\overset{\sim}{r}}_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} - {{{\overset{\sim}{H}}_{1}\lbrack {n,{k❘{t_{1}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}}} }^{2}.}}}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(18)}\end{matrix}$Thus, after pre-whitening, a conventional space-time decoder for a2-transmit and 2-receive antenna system can be used.

Note that L₁[n,k] can be rewritten as shown in Equation 19:L ₁ [n,k]=({tilde over (H)} ⁻¹ [n,k]) ^(H) H ₁ ^(H) [n,k]R _(v) ⁻¹[n,k].  Eq. (19)A predetermined weight matrix H₁ ^(H)[n,k]R_(v) ⁻¹[n,k] for minimummean-square error (MMSE) restoration of the desired signal t₁[n,k]suppresses the interfering signal t₂[n,k]. After MMSE signalrestoration, the correlation matrix of the residual interferers andnoise can be represented as set forth in Equation 20:E{H ₁ ^(H) [n,k]R _(v) ⁻¹ [n,k]v[n,k](H ₁ ^(H) [n,k]R _(v) ⁻¹[n,k]v[n,k])^(H) }=H ₁ ^(H) [n,k]R _(v) ⁻¹ [n,k]H ₁ [n,k].The term {tilde over (H)}⁻¹[n,k]^(H) whitens the residual interferersand noise. Therefore, the pre-whitening processing for the ML decoderincludes MMSE restoration of the desired signals followed by whiteningof the residual interferers and noise.

In another aspect of the invention, successive interference cancellationis utilized to improve the overall system performance. The successiveinterference cancellation can be based upon cyclic redundancy check(CRC) codes and/or signal quality.

In one embodiment, a MIMO-OFDM system includes successive interferencecancellation based upon CRC codes for identifying decoding errors. Firstand second data blocks b₁[n,k], b₂[n,k] can be decoded as describedabove. If an error is detected in one of the data blocks, such as thefirst data block b₁[n,k], and no errors are detected in the other datablock, such as the second data block b₂[n,k], then the coded signals forthe correct (second) data block are regenerated at the receiver andremoved from the received signal. That is, the coded signals for seconddata block b₂[n,k] are removed from the received signal such thatcleaner signals can be used to re-detect and decode the first data blockb₁[n,k], which originally contained an error. More particularly, thefirst data block can be re-detected and decoded without interferencefrom the second data block signals.

In a further embodiment, a MIMO-OFDM system detects and decodes each ofthe data block signals, which do not include error codes such as CRCcodes. As is known to one of ordinary skill in the art, some systems donot utilize error coding when signal quality is expected to be above apredetermined threshold. In accordance with the present invention, eachdecoded signal has an associated MMSE. The signal with the higherquality, e.g., lower MMSE, is removed such that it does not interferencewith the other signal.

In another aspect of the invention, a MIMO-OFDM system includes enhancedchannel parameter estimation using relatively accurate channel delayprofiles. In one embodiment, a known decision-directed channel parameterestimator along with optimum training sequences for OFDM systems withmultiple transmit antennas are used to estimate the channel delayprofiles. Illustrative parameter estimations and training sequences aredescribed in Y. (Geoffrey) Li, et al, “Channel Estimation for OFDMSystems with Transmitter Diversity and its Impact on High-Rate DataWireless Networks,” IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Comm., vol. 17,pp. 461 471, March 1999, and Y. Li. et al., “Simplified ChannelEstimation for OFDM Systems with Multiple Transmit Antennas,” (citedearlier). The estimated channel delay profiles are used to determinechannel parameter estimations.

In general, the time and frequency correlation of the channel profilesare used to more accurately estimate the channel parameter estimation.More particularly, channel profiles are correlated in time since thechange over time is relatively slow. Similarly, adjacent channels havesimilar frequency responses and are thus correlated with respect tofrequency. By determining the average channel impulse response forexample, a deviation from the average can form the basis to weight eachchannel impulse response. With this weighting arrangement, the channeldelay estimates can be more accurately estimated to enhance channelparameter estimation.

The channel impulse response h_(ij)[n,l] can be estimated using thecorrelation of channel parameters in the time and frequency domains. Theestimated channel impulse response ĥ_(ij)[n,l] can be reconstructedusing a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) as shown below in Equation 21

$\begin{matrix}{{{\hat{H}}_{ij}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} = {\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{K_{o} - 1}{{{\hat{h}}_{ij}\lbrack {n,l} \rbrack}W_{K}^{kl}}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(21)}\end{matrix}$where ĥ_(ij)[n,l] contains the true channel parameter h_(ij)[n,l], W_(K)^(kl) is described above in Equation 5, and an estimation errore_(ij)[n,l] as expressed below in Equation 22:ĥ _(ij) [n,l]=h _(ij) [n,l]+e _(ij[n,l])  Eq. 22)The estimation error e_(ij)[n,l] can be Gaussian with zero-mean andvariance σ². The parameter estimation quality can be measured with anormalized MSE (NMSE) defined as follows in Equation 23:

$\begin{matrix}{{NMSE}\mspace{14mu}\underset{=}{\bigtriangleup}\mspace{14mu}\frac{E{{{{\hat{H}}_{ij}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack} - {H_{i,j}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}}}^{2}}{E{{H_{ij}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}}^{2}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(23)}\end{matrix}$Thus, the NMSE for the channel response can be expressed as set forth inEquation 24:NMSE_(r) =K _(o)σ²  (Eq. (24)assuming that the NMSE is normalized as shown in Equation 25:

$\begin{matrix}{{\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{K_{o} - 1}{E{{h_{ij}\lbrack {n,l} \rbrack}}^{2}}} = {{\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{K_{o} - 1}\sigma_{l}^{2}} = 1}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(25)}\end{matrix}$σ_(l) ²

E∥h_(ij)[n,l]∥².with

If the channel delay profile is known, that is, σ_(l) ² for l=0, . . . ,K₀−1 is known, and is used to reconstruct channel frequency responsefrom ĥ_(ij)[n,l], the MSE of Ĥ_(ij)[n,k], can be significantly reduced.In this case, if weighting factors α₁'s are selected to minimize theNMSE of the estimated channel response as in Equation 26:

$\begin{matrix}{{{\hat{H}}_{ij}\lbrack {n,k} \rbrack}\mspace{11mu}\underset{=}{\bigtriangleup}\mspace{11mu}{\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{K_{o} - 1}{\alpha_{l}{{\hat{h}}_{ij}\lbrack {n,l} \rbrack}W_{K}^{kl}}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(26)}\end{matrix}$then the optimal weighting factor α₁, can be defined in Equation 27:

$\begin{matrix}{\alpha_{l} = \frac{\frac{\sigma_{l}^{2}}{\sigma_{l}^{2} + \sigma^{2}}}{\sum\limits_{m = 0}^{K_{o} - 1}\frac{\sigma_{m}^{4}}{\sigma_{m}^{2} + \sigma^{2}}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(27)}\end{matrix}$

which can also be expressed as an inverse of the sum of one plus a ratioof noise power to a power of channel response estimates averaged overthe receive antennas, i.e.,

$\frac{1}{1 + \frac{\sigma^{2}}{\sigma_{l}^{2}}}$and the resultant NMSE is expressed in Equation 28:

$\begin{matrix}{{NMSE}_{o} = \frac{\sigma^{2}{\sum\limits_{m = 0}^{K_{o} - 1}\frac{\sigma_{m}^{2}}{\sigma_{m}^{2} + \sigma^{2}}}}{\sum\limits_{m = 0}^{K_{o} - 1}\frac{\sigma_{m}^{4}}{\sigma_{m}^{2} + \sigma^{2}}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(28)}\end{matrix}$

Channel delay profiles depend upon the environment and therefore areusually unknown to users of the system. However, for MIMO-OFDM systems,channels corresponding to different transmit or receive antennas shouldhave the same delay profiles. Thus, σ_(l) ²=E∥h_(ij)[n,l]∥² can beestimated by averaging the estimated channel impulse response for thechannels formed by the four transmit antennas and the p receive antennasas shown below in Equation 29:

$\begin{matrix}{{\hat{\sigma}}_{l}^{2} = {\frac{1}{4p}{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{4}{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{p}{{{{\hat{h}}_{i,j}\lbrack {n,l} \rbrack}}^{2}.}}}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(29)}\end{matrix}$

With the estimated variance, channel delay profile estimates are moreaccurate so as to improve channel parameter estimation.

EXAMPLE

An exemplary MIMO-OFDM system in accordance with the present inventionwas simulated. The known typical urban (TU) and hilly terrain (HT) delayprofiles were used with Doppler frequencies of 5, 40, 100, and 200 Hz,respectively. The channels corresponding to different transmit orreceive antennas have the same statistics. Four transmit antennas anddifferent numbers of receive antennas were used to form a 4-inputmultiple-output OFDM systems.

To construct an OFDM signal, the entire channel bandwidth, 1.25 MHz, isdivided into 256 subchannels. The 2 subchannels on each end are used asguard tones, and the remaining (252 tones) are used to transmit data. Tomake the tones orthogonal to each other, the symbol duration is about204.8 microseconds. An additional 20.2 microseconds guard interval isused to provide protection from intersymbol interference due to channelmultipath delay spread. This results in a total block length T_(ƒ) ofabout 225 microseconds and a subchannel symbol rate r_(b) of 4.44 kbaud.

A 16-state space-time code with 4-PSK is used. Each data block,containing 500 bits, is coded into two different blocks, each of whichhas exactly 252 symbols, to form an OFDM block. Therefore, the OFDMsystem with 4 transmit antennas can transmit 2 space-time codewords(1000 bits in total). Each time slot includes 10 OFDM blocks, with thefirst block used for training and the remaining nine blocks used fordata transmission. Thus, the system can transmit data at a rate of 4Mbits/sec over a 1.25 MHz channel, i.e., the transmission efficiency is3.2 bits/sec/Hz.

FIGS. 5A-6B show the simulated performance of MIMO-OFDM systems inaccordance with the present invention with different channel delayprofiles, numbers of receive antennas, and detection techniques. FIG. SAdemonstrates the effect of interleaving on the performance improvement.By interleaving, the required SNR for a 10% WER is improved by 1.5 dBfor the TU channel and by 0.7 dB for the HT channel. Since the HTchannel has more diversity than the TU channel before interleaving,interleaving has less gain for the HT channel than for the TU channel.

FIG. 6A-B compare the WERs of a system with interleaving for differentdetection techniques. As shown, the system with successive interferencecancellation based on CRC and signal quality (MMSE) can reduce therequired WERs for a 10% WER by 2.5 and 1.8 dB, respectively. All theperformance curves in FIGS. 5A-5B are for OFDM with 4 transmit and 4receive antennas. As the number of receive antennas increases,performance improves, as can be seen from FIG. 6A-6B. In particular, ifthe receive antenna number is increased from 4 to 6, the OFDM systemwith either the TU or HT channels will have about 4 dB performanceimprovement.

FIGS. 7A-7B compare the performance of MIMO-OFDM systems with the idealor the estimated channel parameters for different channels with a 40 HzDoppler frequency. From FIG. 7A it can be seen that the required SNRsfor a 10% WER are 10-11 dB for a MIMO-OFDM system with estimated channelparameters for successive interference suppression and space-timedecoding, which is 1.5-2 dB higher than with ideal channel parametersfor signal detection and decoding. With additional receive antennas,performance improves, as shown in FIG. 7B. In particular, for a systemwith estimated channel parameters, the required SNR for a 10% WER isreduced by 4.5 dB and 2 dB when the number of receive antennas isincreased from 4 to 6 and 6 to 8, respectively.

FIGS. 8A-D compare the performance of OFDM systems with differentDoppler frequencies. As the Doppler frequency becomes higher, thechannel estimation error increases, and therefore the system suffersmore degradation. For a MIMO-OFDM system with 4 transmit and 4 receiveantennas, the required SNR for a 10% WER is degraded by 2.4 dB when theDoppler frequency is increased from 40 Hz to 100 Hz. However, with morereceive antenna numbers, the degradation is reduced. The degradation isonly about 0.4 dB with 10 receive antennas.

The present invention provides an OFDM system having multiple transmitand receive antennas to form a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)system that increases system capacity. A pre-whitening technique for MLdecoding and successive interference cancellation technique aredisclosed. Using these techniques in a four input/four output OFDMsystem, the net data transmission rate can reach 4 Mbits/sec over a 1.25MHz wireless channel with a 10-12 dB SNR required for a 10% WER,depending on the radio environment and signal detection technique forword lengths up to 500 bits. A MIMO-OFDM system in accordance with thepresent invention can be effectively used in high data-rate wirelesssystems

One skilled in the art will appreciate further features and advantagesof the invention based on the above-described embodiments. Accordingly,the invention is not to be limited by what has been particularly shownand described, except as indicated by the appended claims. Allpublications and references cited herein are expressly incorporatedherein by reference in their entirety.

1. A method for communicating data from a transmitting section of afirst device having M₁ transmitting antennas to a receiving section of asecond device having M_(r) receiving antennas, comprising: at saidtransmitting section of said first device: transforming a first datablock into M₁/2 signals by a first space-time encoder; and a second datablock into M₁/2 signals by a second space- time encoder, thus creatingM₁ signals forming an OFDM block from each of said M₁ , signals, thusforming M₁ OFDM blocks, and transmitting each said M₁ OFDM blocks over arespective one of said M₁ antennas; and at said receiving section ofsaid second device: simultaneously receiving the transmitted signalssaid M₁ receiving antennas to form received signals; employing maximumlikelihood decoding to decode said first and second data blockscontained in said received signals; if the first decoded data block isdetermined to be in error and the second data block is determined to beerror free, or if the second decoded data block is determined to be inerror and the first decoded data block is determined to be error free,re-encoding the error free decoded data block; regenerating there-encoded data block and removing the regenerated data block from thereceived signals, thereby forming modified received signals; andre-decoding the modified received signals.
 2. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising using CRC codes when re-encoding andremoving the one of a first data block or second data block andre-decoding the modified received signals.
 3. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising using MMSE levels when re-encoding andremoving the one of a first data block or second data block andre-decoding the modified received signals.
 4. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising performing channel estimation by weightingchannel delay response estimates.
 5. The method according to claim 4,wherein performing channel estimation further comprises weighting thechannel response estimates based upon a deviation from an averagechannel response estimate for each delay.
 6. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising minimizing an NMSE of a channel by weightingchannel response estimates.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the firstor the second data block that is not removed is determined to haveerrors.
 8. A method for communicating data, comprising;
 1. on a singletransmitting computing device: generating a respective OFDM block fromeach of a first, second, third and fourth coded signals, the first andsecond coded signals generated from a first data block processed by afirst space-time encoder and the second and third coded signalsgenerated from a second data black processed by a second space-timeencoder; and transmitting the first, second, third and fourth codedsignals from respective transmit antennas; and
 2. on a receivingcomputing device: simultaneously receiving the first, second, third andfourth coded signals on a plurality of receive antennas as a receivedsignal; regenerating the received signal with the first data blockremoved from the received signal; re-decoding the regenerated receivedsignal; and performing channel estimation by computing a weightingfactor corresponding to an inverse of a sum of one plus a ratio of noisepower to a power of channel response estimates averaged over the receiveantennas.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein re-decoding the regeneratedreceived signal further comprises re-decoding the second data blocksignal when the decoded first data block has a higher signal qualitythan the decoded second data block.
 10. The method according to claim 9,wherein the signal quality is based upon MMSE.
 11. The method accordingto claim 8, further comprising regenerating the received signal,removing the first data block signal from the received signal, andre-decoding the second data block signal when the decoded first datablock does not have decoding errors and the second data block signaldoes have a decoding error.
 12. The method according to claim 8, furthercomprising using Viterbi decoding.
 13. The method according to claim 8,further comprising encoding the first and second data black signals withindependent space-time codes.
 14. The method according to claim 8,further comprising MMSE restoration of the first and second data blocksignals.
 15. The method according to claim 8, wherein the plurality ofreceive antennas comprises at least four receive antennas.
 16. Themethod according to claim 8, further comprising weighting channelresponse estimates based upon channel delay profile information.
 17. Themethod according to claim 8, further comprising performing a weightedDFT of estimated channel responses.
 18. An apparatus for decoding data,the data being transmitted from a single computing device, the apparatuscomprising: a module that receives a first plurality of encoded signalsand a second plurality of signals simultaneously; a module that, afterdecoding a first data block and a second data block of the receivedsignals, modifies the received signals by re-encoding the first orsecond data block and removing the re-encoded first or second data blockfrom the received signals and re-decodes the modified received signalswherein the module that modifies and re-decodes the modified receivedsignals further treats the second data block as interference whenre-decoding the first data block and treats the first data block asinterference when re-decoding the second data block.
 19. The apparatusof claim 18, wherein the first or the second data block that is notremoved is determined to have errors.